


A Safe Place to Land

by nagi_schwarz



Series: The Oppenheimer Effect [80]
Category: Leverage, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 05:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11433891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, Any, stepping in to help when a stranger is in need."Alec and the Leverage crew are working a job at a small hotel when a stranger arrives, and Parker thinks something is wrong with him.





	A Safe Place to Land

Going undercover in a cheap hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was not Alec’s idea of a good time. He’d forgotten why Nate liked to do jobs in the city they lived in, which was because it was convenient. They had resources they couldn’t otherwise access when they were on the road. But this was a big job - a damn big job, and it involved human trafficking. So Alec was wearing a polyester polo shirt and wrinkled khakis and sitting behind an ancient computer, pretending to be the night clerk at the little hotel that was a front for an international child trafficking ring.

Parker was sitting beside him, watching the entrances and exits like someone was about to come in with a fistful of diamonds.

The chime on the front door sounded.

Parker lifted her head, eyes lighting up. She pasted a smile on her face. She was still sharpening her people skills.

“Good evening! How can I help you?”

The young man who shuffled up to the desk had a gray, sickly pallor despite his dark skin - darker than Alec’s. He was young, maybe eighteen, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was thin, and he definitely didn’t smell very nice.

“I have a reservation.”

Parker poised her hands over her keyboard, looking perky and alert. She’d had too much chocolate. “Name?”

“Damien Green.”

Alec managed not to flinch at the name _Damien_ after that year they’d spent chasing Damien Moreau.

Parker made a disapproving humming noise. “I don’t have any reservations under that name.”

Young Damien blinked tiredly. “Um - I didn’t make it.”

“Who did?” Parker asked.

“Try Cammie - um, Cameron Mitchell.”

The name was familiar, but Alec resisted the urge to Google it.

Parker shook her head. “Sorry, none under that name either.”

Damien scrubbed a hand over his face. “What about Evan Lorne?” He had to spell the last name for Parker, but then she nodded.

“Yes. Two nights. Guest is Damien Green.” Parker offered him her brightest smile, but he barely noticed. She handed him one of the little cardstock keycard holders. “You’re in room 212. Elevators are to your left. Wifi password’s in there. Enjoy your stay.”

Damien stared at the keycard for a very long time. Was he high? But then he heaved himself upright - every line of him was writ with exhaustion - and offered Parker a tired smile. “Thank you.” And he turned and shuffled for the elevators.

Parker watched him like a hawk. As soon as the elevator doors slid closed, she turned to Alec.

“There’s something wrong with that boy.”

“He’s probably high or coming down off of a high,” Alec said.

Parker shook her head. “No. It was something else. We have to help him.”

“What? No, Parker, we’re in the middle of a job -”

“If something happens to him, it will disrupt the job anyway,” Parker said.

Alec sighed. “Fine.” He tapped his radio to contact Nate, but Parker said,

“Sophie, Hardison’s going to send you some footage from the foyer cam. I need you to read this guy and tell me what’s wrong with him.”

“Really?” Alec asked, but he was already isolating the footage and sending it to Sophie and Nate, who were using one of the other hotel rooms as their base of operations.

“Oh dear,” Sophie said, a few minutes later.

“What does that mean?” Parker cast a hunted look at the elevator, like Damien might return at any moment.

“He’s terribly depressed,” Sophie said. “I mean - obviously he’s been homeless for a while. Maybe a teen runaway? Likely engaging in survival sex.”

“He looked high to me,” Alec said.

“No, not intoxicated,” Nate said. “Sophie’s right.”

Parker made a low sound of distress. “What if he tries to kill himself?”

“That would definitely mess up the job,” Hardison said.

“I’ll go check on him,” Eliot said, but Sophie said,

“No, let me.”

“Are you sure?” Eliot asked.

“I’m sure,” Sophie said, and there was a note in her voice that made Alec deeply uncomfortable.

She and Nate went off comms to sort things. Parker insisted that Alec pull up the cam footage for the hallway outside of Damien’s assigned room, but the hallway was empty. Given how late it was, that wasn’t a surprise, but a few minutes later, Sophie stepped off of the elevator pushing a housekeeping cart and wearing a housekeeping uniform.

She knocked on Damien’s door. Alec couldn’t quite read her lips, but she had some towels clutched to her chest, shoulders curled in so she looked diffident and nervous.

“Housekeeping. I brought you fresh towels.”

There was no response.

Sophie knocked again.

Still no response.

“Go _in,_ ” Parker insisted.

Sophie used a housekeeping card to unlock the door. “Hello? Mr. Green? Oh, sir, please put the knife down.”

Eliot leaped out of the housekeeping cart, scattering linens.

“What’s going on?” Parker asked.

“I got him,” Eliot said. “You okay, Sophie?”

“He wasn’t going to hurt me,” Sophie said.

Alec ducked his head, put a hand to one ear to block out distractions. There was crying in the background.

Parker was peering anxiously at the security monitor.

Nate arrived, shrugging a jacket on over his wrong-colored polo shirt. “Go. I’ve got this.”

Alec and Parker dashed up the stairs, because the elevators in this hotel were damn slow. They hurried across the second floor as quickly and quietly as possible, stepped around the fallen linen, and into the room.

Sophie was standing in the bathroom doorway, towels clutched tightly. Eliot was kneeling on Damien’s back, restraining him, a small knife in hand. Damien was lying very, very still, but tears were streaming down his face.

“Now,” Eliot said, “if I let you up, will you try to hurt yourself?”

Damien shook his head.

Eliot eased up slowly, folded the knife and tucked it into his pocket.

“What’s going on, kid?” Eliot asked.

Damien scrubbed his face with the back of his wrist, huddled on the closed toilet lid with his arms around his knees. “They made me promise I’d come here, but I - I can’t go with them.”

Alarms went off in Alec’s head. “Who are they?” he asked, keeping his voice gentle. “Your parents?”

Damien shook his head. “No. My parents signed over their rights.”

Sophie and Alec exchanged looks. Damien was on the high end of the age range these traffickers liked to use, but he could probably be made to look younger, if one tried hard enough.

“Who’s coming for you?” Parker asked, kneeling in front of Damien and searching his gaze. Her hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists.

“Not sure. Maybe Cammie, maybe Lorne or Shep, maybe even JD.” Damien let out a laugh that sounded like a sob. “They’ll do it, too.”

“Who are they?” Parker prodded.

“My teachers. From high school.”

Alec, Sophie, and Eliot all exchanged puzzled looks.

Parker peered at Damien between his knees. “Why would your high school teachers be coming for you?”

Teachers trafficking their own students? Alec swallowed down bile.

“Cammie adopted Tyler. We were in The System together. Cammie and Lorne are good people. Take real good care of Tyler. But I - I fucked things up with them. They’ll probably just turn me in to my caseworker,” Damien muttered.

Harboring a runaway was a crime. Alec knew that well, from his own stint in The System.

“We can protect you from them,” Parker said.

Damien blinked at her. “Who the hell is _we?_ ”

“Me and...the hotel staff,” Parker said. “This is Sophie from housekeeping and Eliot from security. And of course me and Alec from the front desk.”

Damien narrowed his eyes. “Who’s watching the front desk? And what the hell kind of hotel staff busts up a guy’s suicide attempt?”

“The kind of hotel staff that is observant and cares,” Parker said, and Damien’s anger deflated.

“I’m such a fucking wreck.” His voice hitched with another sob. “Go. Just - go. I promise I won’t do anything stupid.”

“One of us could watch over you,” Parker said, and Alec cleared his throat pointedly, but it was too late.

“That’s not at all creepy,” Damien said.

Nate’s voice came over the comms. “We have a situation on our hands.”

“What makes you think so?” Alec asked.

“Because watching someone sleep is not actually romantic,” Damien said.

“Because Evan Lorne and JD Nealson want to see their friend Damien Green,” Nate said in a low voice, and then louder, “Gentlemen, your friend is upstairs in room 212. He’s already checked in. No, to my knowledge, he hasn’t left the building.”

 _Stall him_ , Nate meant.

Alec knew enough from his time in The System to be wary of these teachers. Kids in The System were easy targets for people who seemed like they wanted to help but instead had ulterior motives. Alec swallowed down bitter memories.

“Here they come,” Nate said.

There were footsteps in the hall, and then two men appeared in the doorway. One was young, only a couple of years older than Damien, and the other was in his late thirties or early forties.

“Air Force,” Eliot muttered. “Distinctive haircuts.”

But Damien had said they were teachers.

“Damien?” the older man asked. “Are you all right?” He cast wary looks at Parker and the rest of the crew.

Damien gazed up at the man with hope and longing in his eyes, with such _want_ that Alec’s throat ached.

“Lorne. JD. You came.”

“You’re here,” the older man said, relief evident on his face. “I wasn’t sure you’d actually take us up.”

“You gonna take me back to my caseworker?” Damien curled in more tightly on himself.

The older man shrugged. “I honestly didn’t think about it. I don’t know if your case is even open. I heard when kids were AWOL after their eighteenth birthday, their cases just closed. When you called, Cam was so worried, but after everything that happened this summer, he’s still not up for a lot of travel, so he sent us.”

The younger man eyed Sophie, Alec, Parker, and Eliot, and something in his gaze made Eliot straighten up, narrow his eyes, ready himself for combat. But Eliot also looked very, very puzzled.

“You haven’t been causing trouble for these nice people, have you?” the younger man asked.

“We were concerned about him,” Parker said tartly, standing up.

“They’re good people, JD,” Damien said. “They were trying to help me.”

“Help you? Do you need help? Should I call your caseworker?” Lorne was already reaching into his pocket for his phone.

Eliot held out the knife Damien had been planning to use on himself. “He was going to do this.”

Lorne’s expression turned heartbroken. Immediately he knelt in front of Damien. “No, don’t, please don’t. Look, come home with us. We have room.”

“I can’t do that,” Damien said. “I have a record now. They’d never let you foster any other kids, and so many kids deserve parents like you -”

“John and Rodney got a place of their own right next door, they can still take in kids,” Lorne said. “Come on, Damien. Come home.”

Damien shook his head. “No. I’ll screw up again, drag everyone down -”

“Let us be your safe place to fall.” Lorne caught Damien’s gaze, held it. “Please.”

“What about Tyler?” Damien asked.

JD blinked. “What about him?”

“Won’t he be mad?” Damien’s voice was very small.

Alec felt like an intruder. Sophie looked uncomfortable. Parker was watching Lorne and JD like a hawk, ready to jump in and protect Damien at any second, and Alec had never seen her like this before. Eliot was still watching JD very warily.

“No,” Lorne said. “No, he’s been worried about you ever since you went missing.”

“But I - we fought, and I screwed things up with Tina and Sasha, and -”

“And you didn’t do anything that you can’t come back from,” Lorne insisted.

JD crossed the room, knelt beside Evan so he could also meet Damien’s gaze. “You heard what happened this summer? You heard what I did?”

Alec was itching to be back at a keyboard, finding out just what had happened to these men this summer.

Damien nodded. “Yeah, but you were defending Tyler and Cammie -”

“I still took lives,” JD said. “No matter what the context, taking a life is -” He swallowed. “I hope you never have to find out what it’s like.”

Eliot had gone very, very still, entire body taut like a bowstring.

“But with people who love you, you can come back from anything,” JD continued. “Kiddo, Tyler loves you. Cammie loves you. Evan and I love you too. Come back with us.”

“Guys, what’s going on?” Nate asked.

Damien snorted. “Kiddo. You’re barely older than me.”

Lorne reached into his pocket, drew out what looked like a silver marble. “Hey, hold this for a second.”

Damien accepted it warily, cradled it in his palm. For one second, it flared bright blue. Lorne and JD exchanged significant looks. Then Lorne took the silver marble back, pocketed it. It flared blue before it vanished into his jacket pocket.

“If you like,” JD said, “we can tell you why I legitimately get to call you kiddo. After we get home.” He straightened up, offered his hand.

“I’m gonna screw up,” Damien said.

Lorne smiled gently. “We’re going to be here. We’ve been here all this time, haven’t we?”

Damien stood up slowly. Lorne whistled.

“Damn. When did you get taller than me?”

Damien blinked at him, a little dazedly. “Am I?”

“Everyone but Tyler is going to be taller than you one day,” JD said, clapping Lorne on the shoulder. “Even the girls.”

Lorne stepped closer to Damien, put an arm around his shoulders, guided him out of the room. JD turned to Sophie, Parker, Alec, and Eliot in turn.

“Thank you,” he said, “for stepping in to help a stranger in need.”

Parker said, “He wasn’t a stranger to you.”

“No,” JD agreed. “He’s family.” And he turned and followed Lorne out of the room.

“Everything’s fine,” Sophie said, and Nate heaved a sigh of relief.

“That guy was black ops,” Eliot said.

Parker blinked. “Lorne? But he looked so - teacher-y.”

“No, the other one. JD.” Eliot looked highly unsettled. “But he was barely a kid.”

“How old were you when you joined up?” Sophie asked. She drifted into the hallway and began picking up the spilled linens.

“Not much older,” Eliot conceded, “but even when I was his age, I wasn’t like that.”

“Like what?” Alec asked.

Eliot sighed. “ _Old_.”

“That’s a mystery for another day,” Nate said. “Back to your places, everyone. We have work to do.”

Alec and Parker headed for the stairs together, as Eliot was helping Sophie clean up the hallway.

“That was really nice of you,” Alec said to Parker. “Helping that kid.”

“We all helped,” Parker said.

Alec eyed her. “How long were you in The System?”

Parker’s gaze went dark for a second before she said, “Long enough.”

“I hear it’s better now,” Alec said. “In a lot of ways.”

Parker glanced back toward what had been Damien’s room. “It was better for him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fills the attempted suicide square of my h/c bingo card.


End file.
